Jeanette Mae Lieske

Jeanette Mae Lieske, went home to Heaven at the age of 100 on Thursday, September 18, 2025, at Auburn Court, Chaska, MN.

A Christian Funeral will be held on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, at 11 am, with a time of gathering from 9:30-10:45 am, all at St. John's Lutheran Church, 300 East Fourth Street, Chaska, MN. Pastor Greg Snow will preside. Jeanette will be laid to rest at St. John's Lutheran Cemetery.

In Loving Memory of Jeanette Mae (Schroeder) Lieske

On February 2, 1925, a baby girl named Jeanette Mae was born to Henry and Freda Schroeder in Morgan, Minnesota. A full century later, after a life rich with love, faith, and adventure, we say goodbye to a woman who left a gentle but lasting mark on everyone she knew.

Jeanette grew up in challenging times that instilled in her an unbreakable foundation of strength and resilience. Alongside her five brothers and two half-sisters, she learned the values of hard work, tight-knit families, and finding joy in the simple things of life. She excelled in school, graduating Salutatorian of her high school class in 1943, and was singled out to work directly for the school superintendent under a federal program grant.

A year later, she earned a degree from the Minnesota School of Business, as one of only eight honor students in her class. As a testament to her work ethic and spirit of service, she attained those honors while working full-time at Gilfillian Farms to pay for her schooling and then went on to work for the Minnesota Nurses Association during the Polio pandemic.

But Jeanette’s proudest accomplishments were never the degrees or the jobs she held—they were the people she loved.

She and Rueben Lieske had known of each other since their school days, but their story truly began with a date with two other couples to go see a show in December 1943. Earlier that year Rueben had begun serving in the Marine Corps Officer’s training program, which meant he and Jeannette would be separated for most of the next three years. But their romance endured and even grew as Rueben wrote Jeanette nearly every day during those three years. Those letters carried their love through distance and uncertainty, until August 23,1947 in Morgan, MN, when Jeanette married the man who would be her partner for nearly fifty years.

After Rueben finished his degree at Hamline University on a GI Bill in 1948, the newlyweds moved from Minneapolis to Chaska. Jeanette continued working at the Chaska Sugar Factory right up until she gave birth to their first son, Rodney (Rod) in 1950. Two years later, they gave Rod the gift of a younger brother, Randall (Randy). Even though she had officially traded in the workforce for motherhood, Jeanette’s industriousness and community-spirit was given another outlet at her church community at St. John’s Lutheran, where she taught Sunday school, served as an officer in the Ladies Aid, and kept records with the same precision and care she brought to everything she did.

After Rueben retired from his 36 years of teaching, travel became a shared joy for Rueben and Jeanette. From Europe’s cobbled streets to the vast beauty of Canada and the U.S., they explored the world side by side. Even after Rueben’s passing in 1996, Jeanette continued her journeys—Italy and Turkey with Ene, Alaska and Hawaii with Eldoris, the East Coast with Edna. Each trip was a reminder that curiosity and companionship don’t fade with age.

And then there was Bridge. For over 70 years, she played the game faithfully, not so much for the cards as for the friendships around the table. It was in those long-standing connections, the laughter, and the shared stories that Jeanette’s true spirit shone.

Jeanette’s life was not one of grand headlines, but of countless small, meaningful moments—quiet acts of service, a steady devotion to her family, and a sense of adventure that never waned. She showed us how to live faithfully, love deeply, and cherish the journey, wherever it may lead.

We will miss her deeply, but her story continues in each of us who were blessed to know her.

Jeanette leaves behind her sons Rod (wife Brenda) and Randy (wife Janet); granddaughters, Alison (Nick) Tasler, Erica (Steve) Pederson, Megan (John) Behnke; great grandchildren, Rueben, Franklin, Lincoln and Gwendolyn Tasler; Piper, Sadie, and Eli Pederson; Isaac, Micah, Mia, Isaiah, and Cameron Behnke; brother Hank (Erna) Schroeder; sister-in-law, Sharon Schroeder; brothers-in-law, Marvin Lieske, Dr. Delmont, DVM (Ene) Lieske; other relatives and friends.

Jeanette is preceded in death by husband, Col. Rueben G. Lieske, USMC retired; parents, Henry and Freda Schroeder; half-sisters, Julie (Alois) Weyker, Joyce (Emil) Krause; brothers, Gordon Schroeder, Robert (Helen) Schroeder, Eugene Schroeder, Derald (Carol) Schroeder; sisters-in-law, Virginia O’Meara and Muriel Lieske.